Ewell Castle School: parents’ guide to Year 7 entry

Ewell Castle School is an independent day school for boys and girls located across three sites in Ewell village near Epsom, Surrey. The school’s focus is on a family-friendly atmosphere, which is facilitated through small class sizes and a personalised approach for each child.

The school is dedicated to providing excellent pastoral care to its pupils. All pupils in Year 7 take part in a mindfulness course, facilitated by the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MISP), and every pupil has access to a full-time ELSA (emotional literacy support assistant). One-to-one weekly private and confidential sessions are available to any pupil through a personalised programme of strategies and high-level CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), without any cost to parents.

Pupils at Ewell Castle School study a broad academic curriculum, which includes traditional core subjects alongside modern foreign languages (Spanish and French), classical civilisation, and philosophy, religion and ethics. In 2022, Ewell Castle School celebrated its best-ever A level results, with 67.4% graded A*–B, while 94% of GCSE pupils achieved 5 or more grades at 9–4 (A*–C). Students typically leave for UK universities, including Aston University in Birmingham, the University of Portsmouth and King’s College London.

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Key information for Ewell Castle School

• Principal: Mr Silas Edmonds

• Address: Ewell Castle School, Church Street, Ewell, Epsom, Surrey KT17 2AW

• County: Surrey

• Admissions contact: [email protected]

• Age range and gender: 3–18, boys and girls

• Number of pupils: 669

• Number of places in Year 7: approximately 40 external applicants

• Open day date: Saturday 24th September and Monday 26th September 2022, Saturday 4th February 2023, Friday 10th March 2023 and Thursday 29th June 2023. Register for a place online

• Overview of selection procedure: entrance assessment

• Registration opens: currently open – download an application form on the school website

• Registration closes: Friday 7th October 2022

• Assessment date: Thursday 24th November 2022

• Scholarship assessment date: Thursday 24th November 2022

Ewell Castle School fees and financial assistance

The tuition fees at Ewell Castle School for Years 7–13 are £6,380 per term. This does not include school lunch, which is not compulsory but recommended and available at a non-refundable cost of £300 per term.

Ewell Castle School is able to offer financial support with fees (bursaries) to pupils who satisfy the academic entry requirements and whose families are unable to afford the full fees. The school can normally provide a discount of up to 50% of fees, although this is dependent on the funds available to the school in any given year. If you would like to register for a bursary for entry to Ewell Castle School, you will need to apply by Friday 14th October 2022.

Pupils are also able to apply for a scholarship for entry to Ewell Castle School. The available scholarships are academic, art, design technology, drama, music, sport, tennis academy and cricket academy. Pupils can apply for a maximum of two scholarships (not including academic scholarships, as these are awarded automatically and do not require a separate application process). All scholarships carry a fee-remission of between 10% and 20% (per scholarship). If you would like to apply for a scholarship on behalf of your child, you will need to complete the application form before Friday 7th October 2022.

Ewell Castle School term dates

The term dates at Ewell Castle School for 2022–23 are:

• Autumn term: 7th September – 13th December 2022

• Half term: 17th–31st October 2022

• Spring term: 4th January – 29th March 2023

• Half term: 13th–17th February 2023

• Summer term: 17th April – 7th July 2023

• Half term: 29th May – 2nd June 2023

Admissions process for Year 7 entry to Ewell Castle School

If you would like to apply for a place at Ewell Castle School for your child, you will need to complete the application form and return this, along with a non-refundable registration fee of £125, to the admissions office before Friday 7th October 2022.

Ewell Castle School invites applications from 11 plus candidates for scholarships in the areas of art, photography, design and technology, drama, music, performing arts, sport, and tennis/cricket. If you would like to register your child for a scholarship, you will need to submit the relevant form and submit your child’s portfolio by Thursday 3rd November 2022.

All candidates will then need to attend the 11 plus entrance assessment day on Thursday 24th November 2022. The morning consists of written tests, while children who have applied for a co-curricular scholarship will be invited to a practical assessment during the afternoon (all children are considered for an academic scholarship, based on their performance during the morning’s tests).

Ewell Castle School will post outcome letters with offers of places at the beginning of February 2023.

Ewell Castle School 11 plus exam

All candidates registered for 11 plus entry to Ewell Castle School for 2023 will take assessments on Thursday 24th November 2022 (or on the publicised reserve date on Friday 2nd December 2022, if the child is not applying for a scholarship).

The exam is two and a half hours long in total (not including extra time or breaks) and includes two main tests:

• English: reading comprehension and extended writing task

• Maths: non-calculator paper covering the Key Stage 2 maths curriculum. Read our guide to 11 plus maths to find out everything you need to know about the exam.

How to help your child prepare for the selection process at Ewell Castle School

Build foundational knowledge

The 11 plus exam at Ewell Castle School assesses candidates’ knowledge and understanding of Key Stage 2 English and maths. Your child can consolidate everything they know with Atom Nucleus, with over 90,000 interactive teacher-created questions and helpful learning resources that span the Key Stage 2 national curriculum.

Preparation is key

Familiarisation with the question formats and known styles ahead of the exam is essential to help your child build exam confidence. An exam preparation subscription with Atom Nucleus enables your child to access quality, unlimited practice material with full score breakdowns to help your child feel confident by the time the exam day comes around.

Your child can try Atom’s Year 6 foundation tests in English and maths to get a feel for exam-style questions and see what sort of content they will likely be tested on in the Ewell Castle School 11 plus exam.

Access to immediate support

When working through challenging topics, your child will need immediate clarity with any misconceptions so that they feel truly secure in every topic. Atom Nucleus includes video tutorials, help sheets and examples with every question to help your child build confidence and competence across all the areas assessed.

Engage with their progress

Celebrate your child’s improvement in areas of challenge together. An accurate and ongoing assessment of their areas of strength and development is helpful.

As an Atom subscriber, you’ll have a parent dashboard which offers data-driven insights into your child’s progress. You can use this effectively to help your child set targets, see a detailed breakdown of their progress by subtopic and set custom practices to target those they find most challenging.

Get started with Atom Learning

It’s our mission to help your child feel prepared and confident before the exam day. Begin your free 5-day free trial of Nucleus today to help your child succeed.

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